how to delete a folder with an invalid character in win2k

[Mondo]

did you try renaming it in the command prompt?

[Stimpy]

yeah. tried renaming, moving and deleting in the command prompt. nothing works..

even tried downloading old version of deltree, didnt work either. trying to remove the directory containing the illegal directory doesnt work either...

:\

[Mondo]

did you try some software solutions? like killitfile deleter...try that out, not sure if it works for folder tho.

here's the link

http://www.zdnetindia.com/downloads/info/10108523.html

good luck

[MattClary]

Check the attributes of the file at the DOS prompt witht he "attrib" command.

[DaForce]

I was in a similar situation a few months ago. One of our linux users connected up to my machine and created a folder on the desktop with like 255 characters off al sorts. Needless to say i couldnt delete it. The only way that i saw possible was for him to log back in and remove it. Which he didnt and he even had a few problems getting rid of it as well.

So maybe you could try getting a linux or mac computer to network onto your machine and try to delete the folder for you.

[Mondo]

this may sound stupid, but have you tried to cut and paste it on to a floppy disk?

[Stimpy]

all no good. folder is still there and refuses to be moved or renamed or anything..

[somlor]

have you tried:
delete strange?file?name.txt

where the "?" is the illegal character.

[edit] I guess in this case it would be "rd", not sure if that works with directories.

[Stimpy]

i ignored the folder for a while but its still there. all the methods above didnt work at all.

so... anyone have any other ideas ???

*sniff*

[vizion]

reformat. Drastic but will work.

[MattClary]

If you riht click on the folder an look at "Properties" is it marked as read only? Did you run the attrib command from a DOS prompt? You said, "I did all those things" but the attrib command is a query in addition to an altering command. What was the result of the query? What attributes does the file show?

[Stimpy]

windows explorer properties see below...

dos attrib just gives me a "file not found" error..


http://members.lycos.co.uk/stimpycg/temp/tab.gif

[Unraveled]

On the odd chance the file is not on a NTFS drive, you can try Knoppix (www.knopix.org). If you are not familiar, Knoppix is a distro of Linux that runs directly from a cd.
I encountered something similar when trying to delete an install of WinXP. Formatting the drive was my solution.
Good luck.

[quinox]

yeah I know what you mean, got myself a nice dir called /lpt/ a few weeks ago... same prob ^^

I have the anwser somewhere, Ill try to find it for you now...

Similar things will happen with hackers creating dirs on your ftp with /com1 /, /ltp /, /aux / and so on

EDIT: Found it (dos prompt commands):

rmdir -s "//C/Program Files/Subdir/COM1"
rmdir -s "\\C\Program Files\Subdir\COM1"
DEL \\.\c:\somedir\aux
rmdir /s

---

the // will make it accept all chars, even illegal ones like the dot on the end

Good luck with it (hope this will help you)

[Maven]

I once had a similar problem then I restarted and tried to delete it and it worked. Have you restarted lately?

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